Slippers and street cred don't usually belong in the same sentence. But Palm Beach prepmonger Stubbs & Wootton is changing that with its new NYC Sewer Cover slippers, which feature one of Manhattan's grimiest icons stitched onto classic black velvet. $395; stubbsandwootton.com. --MORDECHAI RUBINSTEIN

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(Photo: Corbis)

Paul Newman, a great icon of style, passed away on Friday from cancer at age 83. Newman's signature, for me, was that he was so understated in his wardrobe and clothing that whatever character he was playing was at the forefront. His piercing blue eyes and handsome face were almost always obscured by simple, rumpled, blue collar workman style in so many of his roles.

So many designers today capture his all American style -- Gilded Age, RRL, Rogues Gallery, Ernest Sewn, Rag & Bone, Spurr. He typified the look of the well-worn style that is lived in, utilitarian and classically American. --STEPHEN WATSON

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Ben Bernanke

You know things are really askew when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke compares a $700 billion bailout to selling a painting at Sotheby's. I won't pretend to understand what Wall Street has been up to with mortgage-related assets but I have a feeling it has as much to do with low- and mid-income people not being able to afford the loans on their homes as Larry Salander's troubles have to do with paint.

Last spring, I profiled the Upper East Side dealer who went under when he sold percentage shares in dozens of paintings -- some he didn't own, some he used as collateral for loans (from First Republic Bank, among others) that he couldn't repay. Salander was at least $80 million in the hole when his clients/investors (among them hedge fund superstar Roy Lennox) filed lawsuits and his palatial gallery was padlocked. Bet he would have liked a government bailout.

Damien Hirst's Dow-defying triumph at Sotheby's last week is beginning to make a little more sense. The increasingly complex art market is less regulated than Wall Street: Michelangelo (mmm, maybe Murakami) and mortgage-backed securities might have more in common than you might expect. --KELLY DEVINE THOMAS

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Far-reaching in material and scope, Cold War Modern: Design 1945-70, which opens September 25 at London's Victoria & Albert Museum, examines contemporary furniture, film, fashion, architecture, and art in the fertile period after World War II. --JULIE TARASKA

More: Slideshow from the exhibit >>

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(Tom Dixon's Wingback chairs in different states of assembly)

Note to the power brokers of the world: When giving a speech, keep it short. That lesson was in effect at the Sept. 17 gala dinner honoring Australian product designer Marc Newson, who was awarded the second annual London Design Medal as part of the London Design Festival. Hosted by Phillips de Pury in its London gallery and sponsored by Aston Martin, the evening was beset by droning speeches -- which the crowd politely listened to with eyes glazing over. Fortunately, Newson used his brevity to his benefit, accepting the medal with a simple thanks. Skipping his shout-outs to God, his business manager, and the little people who made it possible, he mentioned just one person: "Hi, Ron!" he yelled, fondly waving to Ron Arad, whose melding of art and technology Newson has emulated, and who was seated in the crowd.

Thankfully, there were no speeches the next evening at Established & Sons, where the white-hot furniture company held a dinner at its new 6,000-square-foot studio and showroom East London. Noshing on the mezze, avocado, and beans in the two-floor glass, concrete, and plasterboard space were 100 of the four-year-old brand's closest friends, including powerhouse talents Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby of BarberOsgerby, Alexander Taylor, and Sam Hecht and Kim Colin from Industrial Facility (whose recent work is on show at the Design Museum through Sept. 28.) Established CEO Alasdhair Willis was his usual charming self, despite having been up most of the previous night with his 7-month old son, Beckett, who was suffering from two ear infections ("It makes you feel so helpless, that you know he's in pain and you can't do anything to make it better," he told me.) Angad Paul, who does double duty as Established's Chairman and the CEO of manufacturing concern Caparo Group, also gave me the scoop about manufacturing in India. The short of it: Metalwork and textiles are two of the strengths there, with traditional woodworking more refined in the U.K.

But strangely enough I already knew that, as earlier in the day I had stopped by Factory, a ballroom in Knightsbridge that Tom Dixon and George Smith, a British cabinet-making and upholstery company founded in the first quarter of the 19th century, had temporarily transformed into a workshop. So as we walked around the space littered with the first fruit of the collaboration, Dixon's Wingback chair, which was shown in different states of production, two craftsmen showed us how they were made. As we watched, they variously hand-sanded the wooden frame, glued the pieces together, tied down the coiled springs, fitted the jute webbing, and stitched the burlap cover over the board bristle-and-muslin seat. Their skill was apparent, and the process was mesmerizing to watch. And thankfully, despite their obvious prowess, they didn't utter a word. --JULIE TARASKA

(Several of Established & Sons latest production pieces hang on their back wall)

(A craftsman hand-stitching the canvas cover over the muslin and boar-bristle seat of Dixon's Wingback chair.)

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Louise Bourgeois

Damien Hirst might be the art world's most famous renegade for the moment, having successfully auctioned off just over $200 million worth of art at Sotheby's, but Louise Bourgeois is its favorite 96-year-old grande dame provocateur. Her stunningly tactile retrospective at the Guggenheim is in its final week (through September 28) before it travels to the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in D.C.; New York's Cheim and Read on West 25th Street has new works on view through November 1; and voyeuristic and creative types continue to line up to attend the legendary salons in her unassuming Chelsea brownstone every Sunday.

Anyone is invited to attend the group therapy-like sessions -- as long as you call ahead first (her number is publicly listed, 212-242-4083) -- and painters, writers, poets, sculptors, and dancers (some famous -- Jonas Mekas, Joan Jonas, and Guillermo Kuitca -- others unknown) from around the world attend. (The guy who usually answers the phone, her longtime assistant Jerry Gorovoy, can be seen interviewing the artist here.) Alcohol flows freely as a provocatively restrained Louise holds court over the salon proceedings. Things have been known to get out of hand: people fight, get jealous, take their clothes off, or are thrown out. Brigitte Cornand, whose film trilogy of Bourgeois was shown at the Anthology Film Archives this summer, and Robert Storr, dean of the Yale University School of Art, 2007 Venice Biennale curator, and Bourgeois's biographer, are regulars. There are only two rules: you can't have a cold and you have to bring your work.  --KELLY DEVINE THOMAS

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(Sclera by David Adjaye courtesy of Adjaye Associates)

Out of the flames rises the phoenix. Or so we were reminded during the first days of the London Design Festival, the annual melee of craft, furniture, architecture, fashion, and industrial and product design which takes over the English capital from Sept. 13-23. The 6th annual affair kicked off amid news of the Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and AIG financial meltdowns, which left more than a few people whispering about the future of the creative industries. But on that Tuesday, after artist's Damien Hirst's triumphant two-day sale at Sotheby's (in a radical move, he sold his works directly to buyers, netting nearly $200 million), fears were allayed, replaced by an odd sense of new beginnings.

Take Tuesday's openings at LDF HQ, Somerset House. The 18th century Neoclassical palace has, over the past decade, morphed from civil service outpost -- it was the former home of the Navy Board -- to multipurpose arts center, a role more befitting its majestic setting along the Thames. This year it literally shined, thanks to Patrik Fredrikson and Ian Stallard's Portrait, an internally lit outdoor sculpture made of Corten steel cut to resemble a magnified wood grain. Placed on the building's riverside terrace, the piece, Veuve Clicquot's inaugural design commission for the LDF, will serve as a beacon during the fair's duration.

Back inside Somerset House, though, the bubbly was also in ample supply in the new Embankment exhibit galleries, which are hosting "Wouldn't It Be Nice: Wishful Thinking in Art and Design." A "whistle of optimism for how things could be" is how co-curators Katya Garcia-Anton and Emily King described the multidisciplinary show, which runs through December 7 and features such works as a foam rendition of Jurgen Bey's desk and Martino Gamper's furniture made of reassembled second-hand pieces. It was all too heady, and left us rushing to the building's Terrace Rooms, which Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby had transformed into the invite-only London Design Embassy. An oasis for design dignitaries, the room is kitted out in the pair's sensual minimalist style, and, alas, is only open through today (Friday, Sept. 19).

Speaking of transformations, later that night at Centre Point, that iconic, Brutalist skyscraper in the West End, we finally got an advanced peek at the Paramount members club. Tom Dixon is designing the interiors for the breathtaking space, located on the top three floors of the 33-story building, outfitting it with a mix of hard and soft: his luxurious upholstered Wingback chairs and Bean sofas sit next to metal and concrete elements that echo Centre Point's geometric exterior. Sure the wraparound champagne bar on the summit is great, but it's the 360-degree view out the windows that's the selling point, allowing you to see London from up high, its cars and buses pumping through its arteries, lights twinkling above the noise and crowds. The glamorous transformation is a final justice for the ugly duckling Centre Point, which, after being built in 1966, sat empty for years, its unrepentant architecture the subject of much derision -- even after the building's 1995 Grade II listing.  --JULIE TARASKA

(Fredrikson Stallard's King Bonk )

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One title Joseph O'Neill tried on his latest novel would have pleased the attendants of the Brooklyn Book Festival last weekend. Before Netherland -- the story of a Dutch banker adrift in Manhattan after 9/11 -- became one of the most touted books of the year, O'Neill considered calling it The Brooklyn Dream Game.

And sitting on the dais in the Borough Hall Courtroom, dressed casually in a pair of shorts, a water-stained t-shirt and lace-less Converse sneakers that a woman in the crowd tried to buy off of him, the Ireland-born O'Neill seemed to fit right in among the Brooklyn faithful.

But at the festival that has swiftly become one of the nation's leading literary events -- with participants including Richard Price, Jonathan Lethem and Joan Didion -- he admitted to feeling a bit out of place. "I don't have a deep knowledge of book festivals and they don't have one of me," he said.

Joining Nathan Englander and Susan Choi for a discussion centered around the theme of Inside/Outside, O'Neill allowed that the book was rejected by "every major publisher in New York." But since the city has embraced him, he has gotten "a lot of feedback."

"And, you know, it is a sort of happy state of affairs for me the way the book has connected with the culture," O'Neill said, doing just the same.  --MICHAEL WALEK

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Hold on to your highballs -- are Canadians about to invade your liquor cabinet? Canadian Club is certainly making that effort. The Ontario-based whisky-maker, purchased in June 2005 by Fortune Brands -- which owns Knob Creek and Laphroaig, among other spirits -- has recently had some serious marketplace momentum, just in time for its 150th birthday.

First came C.C.'s sponsorship of race car driver Dario Franchitti. If Franchitti's name or 2007 Indianapolis 500 victory doesn't ring any bells, perhaps his wife, actress Ashley Judd, and her rain-soaked celebration in the victory lane of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway might refresh your memory.

In addition to spokesdriver Franchitti, Canadian Club began a seemingly Mad Men-inspired "Damn Right Your Dad Drank It" ad campaign. Spearheading the brand's double-digit increase in advertising and promotional spending, the "Damn Right" ads  --  using imagery from the 1960s and '70s alongside such quips as "Your Mom Wasn't Your Dad's First" and "Your Dad Never Got a Pedicure"  --  won several awards including a bronze at the 2008 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.

As far as Canadian Club is concerned, a drink is in order. Hence the release  --  albeit limited  --  of their 30-year reserve blend. As the first Canadian distiller to release a 30-year old product (an apparent "kiss our mash" to Crown Royal), the results take Canadian Club's trademark smoothness to even silkier levels. I did consider buying my dad a bottle, however, with only 15,000 produced, I decided to just keep it for myself. Besides, he's always been more of a Scotch drinker anyway. And I'm content to go on believing that my mom was his first, thank you very much. --BARRETT BAFFERT

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Clark Stevens, the Southern California architect known for re-designing large swathes of the American landscape to ecological advantage, has taken his quest to the outskirts of Rome. The result, "The Bear's Walk: A Codex", is on display at the Venice Biennale until November 23. Using an array of images and maps, as well as a highly personal diary, the investigative project -- mounted on a series of six panels -- answers such seemingly odd questions as, "how might a grizzly bear walk back to Rome?"

The unlikely, sometimes mythological answers are important to Stevens. As much as the architect wants to restore natural habitat, he loves to give these barren landscapes back their folklore.

Last April, Stevens went to the Sirente Valley, an area well-populated with bears. Here, a giant crater was formed by a meteor landing on October 27, 312 AD. In his diary, the architect recalls unearthing an astonishing set of coincidences. For instance, the day after Constantine witnessed the meteor from nearby, he started the battle that led to Rome's Christian empire. Fifteen hundred years later, the builders of the Borghese fountain placed an obelisk in Rome whose shadow, every October 27, created a direct line to the crater 100 kilometers away. Then Stevens asks, almost breathlessly, "what can explain the perfect alignment of two large white stones in the meteor's crater, a 6-foot stone monolith several kilometers distant, two summits, with the sunrise of the day the meteor fell and the crater was created?"

"The Bear's Walk", by mapping out these connecting lines, including a path that an adventurous bear could follow into the Eternal City, ultimately poses more questions than it answers. But what it does do is bolster Stevens's belief that bringing back folklore is vitally important to restoring landscape. Even in the rough park land outside Rome. --DAVID HAY

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(From Josef Albers's Homages to the Square)

At Hermès, home to vivid silks and supple leather goods, every pocket square is a canvas and every saddle stitch a brushstroke. So it's fitting that the top floor of their Madison Avenue flagship has been serving double duty as an art gallery lately. After celebrating the works of Indian photographers in the spirit of this year's Subcontinent-inspired collections, they're now hosting photographs from the personal archive of the late Bauhaus art legend Josef Albers, best known for his series of more than one thousand paintings and screenprints of squares, an exercise in color theory and purity of form.

Albers's education in the Bauhaus school is evident in many of the photos, some of which feature furniture with the clean lines and rounded edges common to the movement. Another recurring theme seems to be human absence: there are photos of mannequins, devoid of life, and clothes on a line that appear filled by the wind, yet empty. Some of the most stirring photos, however, are the more personal: those of Albers's wife and of his close friends.

Unsurprising to those familiar with Hermès silk designs, which are often influenced by artists, scarves were made to celebrate Albers's experimentation with color and that famous series, Homages to the Square. It wasn't enough, however, to simply make the scarves in typical -- that is to say, painstaking -- Hermès fashion. Instead, to reflect Albers's technique, the house printed scarves edge-to-edge, with each color ending precisely and without overlap, at significant difficulty. Madison Avenue will carry the Nocturne scarf, a rich combination of dark gray and navy squares. You'll have to act quickly, though: each scarf was made in a limited, numbered edition of just 200.

Next up: this Halloween, the gallery opens an exhibit of never-before-seen Polaroids shot by Pannonica de Koenigswarter, a rebellious Rothschild heiress who spent the 1960's hanging out with Jazz greats, no small feat in that era. The photos will be accompanied by three wishes made by various musicians and entourage members, recorded over the years in, you guessed it, de Koenigswarter's Hermès notebook. Her adventures, if you believe the rumors, include an arrest for marijuana possession with Thelonius Monk and owning over 100 cats, and will be featured in a book, Three Wishes, which hits shelves this fall.

If you do check out the exhibits, a tip: leave the wallet at home. It's hard to make it past all those more tangible works of Hermès art -- and they're likely to cost more than an Albers original. --WYATT JANSEN

(From Pannonica de Koenigswarter's Three Wishes )

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In the northwest corner of Rhode Island, the exclusive Addieville East Farm has quietly attracted hunting aficionados and their more peaceful brethren with 1,000 acres of pheasant hunting (the birds are bred on site), fly fishing in lakes stocked with trout and bass, and sporting clay courses (which simulate actual animals, like soaring doves or little bouncing bunnies). Famous guests have included Patriots players, PGA titlists, and Lee Majors, the Bionic Man. On a recent visit, Red Sox outfielder Brandon Moss took aim -- "I feel like I'm in Georgia," he said -- and later browsed Robin Hollow Outfitters, the on-site gun shop, which stocks models ranging in price from a few thousand to $70K. Day rates vary by season, while annual Hunt Club membership starts at $1,600 and includes access for family picnics, reunions, weddings, and, we're guessing, Republican party getaways (overnights in the Hunting Lodge optional). --ALYSSA GIACOBBE

Addieville East Farm
200 Pheasant Dr., Mapleville, RI
401-568-3185
addieville.com

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There are any number of reasons -- a dry cleaner's suspicious glares, among them -- why a grown man, clad in a smart-looking suit and moments away from attaining the peak of his chosen profession, might not relish a celebratory soaking. But at the end of this year's NBA Finals, victorious Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers enjoyed just such a tribute, resulting pink shirt and all. "It's an honor to be the first coach in NBA history to have a sideline Gatorade dunk," Rivers says via e-mail. "It's a tradition in football, but I'd like to see it become one in basketball." As it happens, dry-cleaning his navy two-button suit -- one of 20 made for him by the Boston-based outfitter ECC -- was no trouble. And his dress shirt, indelibly dyed by the fluorescent rehydrator, was salvaged by an anonymous bidder who paid $55,000 for it in a charity auction -- a Guinness World Record. At that price, it's no wonder that Rivers just signed a contract committing himself to Beantown and plans to repeat his baptism by thirst quencher "at least three or four more times." With Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and other stars sticking around as well, the Lakers won't be the only thing getting mopped up. --NICHOLAS MOSQUERA

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Any debates about where to find Montana's best fly fishing are bound to be heated. They're also bound to include the Big Hole, the legendary river that's full of trout.  Most of the fishing is away from distractions -- it's near small towns like Melrose and Twin Bridges where there's little else to do. If you go to the Big Hole, you go there to fish.

Unless you plan to move into a motel and wade all day, you need a guide with a drift boat to cover as much water as possible. Call Sunrise Fly Shop, an outfit in Melrose that leads trips down many dramatic stretches of the Big Hole. If you cover six miles a day and there are over 3000 trout per mile, over the course of a week you're casting to a lot of fish -- so you'll need some good excuses if you can't catch anything (though we all have our explanations standing by).

These favorable odds, however, have not escaped other anglers, and you're likely to see quite a few other boats on the river.  If you want more solitude, Sunrise can help you there as well. Owner Eric Thorson has an arrangement with the Big Hole C4 Lodge and has access to their private water on a spring creek that's a channel of the Big Hole.  In perfect isolation, you can cast hoppers to wild trout that have moved down from the river. Even better, if you stay at the lodge you can fish the creek whenever you like. It's a sweet setup.  Thorson is a perfect companion -- expert and helpful in his advice, but also aware that while fly fishing is a gentlemanly pursuit, like many gentlemanly pursuits, it's even better with a cold beer. --DAVID COGGINS (Photos: DAN ARMSTRONG)

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President Millard Fillmore may have been born in a log cabin, but he was no Abe Lincoln. In fact, the 13th leader of the United States was a total dud. A VP who took over when Zachary Taylor -- no presidential superstar himself  -- died, Fillmore subsequently failed to win his party's nomination for reelection after three years in office (1850-1853) and then lost again as the candidate for the Whigs and the Know-Nothing Party the next election year. Plus, he signed that little piece of legislation known as the Fugitive Slave Act. So it's appropriate that, up until now, our currency has been Fillmore-free.

Enter artist Jason Polan. Clearly stirred into action by the underwhelming legacy of a man who served ¾ of one term in office, Polan has designed a bill in Fillmore's honor in an appropriate $13 denomination. If Polan's name sounds familiar, it's probably because he's the artist behind Jack Spade's burglar-inspired comic book Breaking and Entering, which chronicled a man-bag-loving thief's three break-ins at Spade's store.

The bills are printed in conjunction with Fritz Swanson's Manchester Press on acid free paper using a creepy old machine that looks like it predates Fillmore himself. The standard-issue bills were produced in a limited-run of just 400 -- and cost, you guessed it, $13 -- plus a special collection of just 26. That exclusive bunch was printed on Nokta paper that's handmade from a Himalayan shrub and broken in with a week spent in either Fritz or Jason's wallet. It's no Mt. Rushmore, but let's face it -- Fillmore could do a lot worse. --WYATT JANSEN

(The printing press)

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Damien Hirst will throw down another art world gauntlet and test the masses next week when he offers more than 200 new works at Sotheby's in London, meaning you can bypass his dealers' waitlists and snag a golden calf with 18-carat solid gold hooves and horns -- a sequel to Hirst's $100 million diamond skull blockbuster last summer -- if you are prepared to spend some $15 million or more.

The September 15 and 16 auction, which carries a typically evocative Hirstian title "Beautiful Inside My Head Forever" and a nine-figure estimate, is a groundbreaking sale in the sense that new works by artists have rarely been sold at auction (auction houses specialize in the resale of objects; art dealers traditionally have primary sales cornered like a Hollywood agent) and never en masse by such a major artist. The artworks  span all of Hirst's iconography -- from butterfly and pharmaceutical-inspired spot paintings to a formaldehyde-preserved shark -- and the setup reminds me a bit of a creative director's take on a classic fashion house (Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel, Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton, Raf Simons at Jil Sander). It also reminds me of something Hirst said when I interviewed him on the occasion of his unprecedented all-paintings exhibition at Gagosian Gallery in New York a few years ago: "I'm always going to make Damien Hirsts because I'm Damien Hirst. But I was starting to think there was a Damien Hirst before we started or something."

Greatest hit albums are always questionable endeavors but one of Hirst's endearing qualities is making a number of people, a significant portion of them with deep pockets, believe that if anyone can pull off a dramatic feat on this scale, this 43-year-old British pickler of mammals can. Browse the catalogue or listen to Sotheby's beautifully articulate Cheyenne Westphal and Oliver Barker explain why here. --KELLY DEVINE THOMAS

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Jack Spade has created a limited edition moustache glove celebrating Colette's arrival to NYC. The glove features an American-style moustache on one hand and a French style moustache on the other. Hold forefinger under your nose and enjoy.

Jack Spade a creé une édition limitée du gant moustache en l'honneur de l'arrivée de Colette à NYC. Le gant représente d'un côté une moustache Américaine et de l'autre une moustache à la Française. Mettez votre index sous le nez et amusez-vous bien!

Can be bought at the Colette x Gap shop on 5th Ave and 54th St.

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Manhattan has plenty of wine bars, wine enthusiasts, and good old-fashioned winos. Until now, however, Manhattan has never had its own winery. That changed last month when the first 200 barrels went into production at the City Winery in Soho.

Clients pay $5,000 for the right to own a barrel, which is the equivalent of about 250 bottles. Amateur wine makers will have access to their wine as well as a dedicated team of wine specialists throughout the months long fermentation process. The specialists will guide you on everything from what wood to use for the barrel, to the blend of grapes, and of course the most important step, what to put on the label. --BEN POPPER

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A progressive city like Minneapolis takes public radio and independent bookstores seriously.  It should come as no surprise then that residents also get weak in the knees when it comes to greenmarkets, another staple of a dutifully well-led life.  Listen to All Things Considered, eat a salad of baby spinach and arugula, decide how much to donate to Barack.

There's a daily market under the metal roofs on Lyndale Avenue, and weekly stands that line Nicollet Mall, the street that runs through the center of downtown. At both of these markets, like many around Minnesota and Wisconsin, the most beautiful displays are consistently showcased by the Hmong immigrant community. 

Often raised on small plots of land -- some less than an acre -- these farmers bring expertise from their native Laos to many local crops.  Some of their half-acre farms are even located within the city limits. That's to say, they're not just about the size of a backyard -- they are a backyard. You would never know that, however, from their tomatoes, cucumbers, beans and berries, which are always excellent.

In addition to these Midwestern staples, the Hmongs grow some of their own favorites. You'll find Thai eggplant, for instance, which looks a bit like a green tomato, and can be eaten raw or made into a chutney.  There are even more intense offerings, like bitter melons, which resemble large shriveled pickles. A teenage girl working at one stand recommended stewing them with bacon and bitter greens for a long time. Is that good?  She wrinkled her nose, 'The elders like it.' --DAVID COGGINS

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Equinox Fitness and the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) teamed up to create a group fitness class based on the workout of Russian player Dmitry Tursunov. He and his trainer, Jason Stacy, stopped by the Equinox on 50th and Broadway in Manhattan to give us a little taste of the 45-minute routine.

The class -- "Game, Set, Match" -- takes you through a dynamic warmup involving practice strokes (tip: leave your racquet at home, and be mindful of your neighbors -- and the floor-to-ceiling windows -- each time you take a swing!), then through drills testing reaction and balance; speed, agility, and quickness; strength training focusing on hips and shoulders; and a yoga cool-down.

Lest you question the intensity of the class, we definitely noticed Tursunov break a sweat early on. "It doesn't seem like much when you do one exercise at a time, but if you do them all together, your heart rate stays up," he later shared. And his trainer noticed, too: Stacy planned on cutting back the gym time scheduled for Tursunov later that day.

Scoreline: In a third round match on the middle Sunday of the US Open, Tursunov, the tournament's 26th seed, lost to 5th seed and compatriot Nikolay Davydenko 2-6, 7-6 (3), 3-6.

Work out: Game, Set, Match available at select Equinox Fitness Clubs nationwide. Visit equinoxfitness.com/GroupFitness for schedules. --ERWIN ONG

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The Monte Carlo, a Minneapolis institution since it opened in the Warehouse District in 1906, succeeds in being all things to all people. It's not uncommon to see a Twins player come in after a game for a late dinner of fried chicken. There are sharply dressed lawyers whispering over power lunches, actors drinking at the bar, and visitors down from the north woods. And now, presumably, the who's who of the Republican Party.

If a place is set in its ways -- and the Monte Carlo certainly is -- it's good to get the basics right. And the interior of the Monte Carlo is a classic. After entering below the neon sign, your eyes adjust to the darkness of the room and discover an interior of vintage Americana with dark patterned wallpaper and red leather banquettes. The bar's shelves are lined with colored lights and there's the pleasing dilemma of choosing from over 400 different bottles of liquor. Following the old Midwest tradition, it remains one of the rare places that serves a beer chaser with a Bloody Mary. (A half pint of draft light beer -- and it does make a difference.)

The food isn't out to shock anybody -- the menu hasn't changed noticeably in a generation. But the key to straight ahead comfort food, of course, is good execution. You can't go wrong with Charlie's Steak Sandwich, rare sliced steak served on warm pumpernickel bread with horseradish sauce. The cheeseburger is professional and rewarding, the fries crisp. Opinions vary on the liver, but then people rarely agree on liver, whatever its merits.

Savoring a glass of Scotch in a booth, as the waitresses pass by in their black and white uniforms, you know you're in a place where comfort has been refined to an art form. --DAVID COGGINS

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